AvSkills | Practical Aviation Training

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About Us

The concept of AvSkills was conceived by Willie Sage, and Craig Anderson over several years, and for a number of reasons, some of which are detailed below.

1. It is all too obvious that a large number of aviation related incidents and accidents occur due to poor piloting skills, and/or decision making.

2. We have seen a number of recreational pilots give up flying due to a lack of confidence in their own flying abilities.

3. In training new airline pilots, we have observed that the low industry experience of many new instructors is having an effect in the training standards of many pilots.

We felt there was a real need in the industry for more "advanced" flight training, over and above what is currently available.

We both work fulltime in the aviation industry, however our passion is getting out into the outdoors in our PA20 Piper Pacer. Flying safely in this environment requires a high degree of accuracy, and a constant mind for safety. We believe we can offer a valuable service, and pass on some of our knowledge, skill and experience to others.

Willie Sage is Chief Pilot for Sounds Air, and Tasman Aviation. He flies a corporate King Air, and also holds his helicopter CPL. He previously held the position of B1900 Fleet Manager for Vincent Aviation (both NZ and Australia), and has over 10,000 hours in his logbook, in a wide variety of aircraft.

He is Flight Examiner rated in both New Zealand and Australia and holds ATPL's in both countries. Willie held positions of line pilot with MountainAir, Sounds Air and Eagle Air, before joining Vincent Aviation, where he spent many years flying a wide variety of aircraft (including B1900, Dash 8, F406) in both NZ, Australia, and internationally.

His practical hands on flying skills have been gained from thousands of hours mountain and strip flying around Mt. Ruapehu, and the Marlborough Sounds.

Craig Anderson is Managing Director of Sounds Aero Maintenance, based at Omaka Airfield, Blenheim.

He was an avionic engineer with Air NZ (Christchurch) for 15 years, where he held the positions of Avionic Engineer, Avionic Lead Hand, and Technical/Computer Instructor.
Since then he has held the positions of Base Engineer for Eagle Airways in Blenheim, and more recently Maintenance Controller for Vincent Aviation (both NZ and Australia) and SoundsAir.

Craig is a keen aviation enthusiast, and has flown the Beech 1900 for Vincent Aviation, and currently flies the C208 Caravan for Sounds Air part time. He also holds "C" and "D" Category Flight Instructor ratings.